Title text: You will be led to judgement like lambs to the slaughter--a simile whose existence, I might add, will not do your species any favors.

Explanation

In this comic, Cueball is going through the traditional loudspeaker-having person refrain about the government having control over our lives and uses the refrain "Wake Up Sheeple", which has been referenced at leasttwo other times in xkcd. Sheeple is a portmanteau (another thing that is loved in xkcd) of "sheep" and "people" used as a derisive term to describe people who thoughtlessly wander through their daily lives going exactly where they are "herded" by the powers that be.

However, in this comic, "sheeple" are not that, instead are a race of half sheep/half person who have slumbered beneath the Earth for ten thousand years and are apparently going to destroy the human race. Repeating a specific phrase 3 times is the same as used in 555: Two Mirrors.

The title text says the humans will be led "like lambs to the slaughter" which is a phrase that appears many times in older texts, the Bible as an example. The phrase means that someone or something would be led to its destruction without it thinking to escape from the disaster. Much in the same way we humans do not seriously consider lower species to be humans, to the Sheeple, our drawing that parallel will not help us in their quest for vengeance.

Transcript

[Cueball yells into a megaphone.]

Cueball: Your government has turned against you! Corporations control your every thought! - Open your eyes!

Are you sure that the Sheeple are a race? I thought that it was just one giant monster (using the royal "we" in its speech). --141.101.97.219 11:23, 4 May 2014 (UTC)

I agree - there is no indication that there are more than one Sheeple, but the trees(?) in the background and the loud baaa indicates that the one shown is a giant. Also the zoom in on the mega eye goes that way. I have corrected the explain acordingly.Kynde (talk) 07:25, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

Sheeple is a plural word, if it were just the one you'd have to call is a sheeperson. 173.245.48.135 16:08, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Both sheep and people have a singular sense so it is not impossible that sheeple has too. Tharkon (talk) 01:15, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

But "people" as a singular is a collective noun. A people is a group such as a nationality or race, not a single individual member CVictoria (talk) 19:06, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

Removed the following paragraph:

This comic may also be a view on Randall's actual political views; the awakened monster in the comic actually represents all the "sheeple". Thus, Randall may be saying that if the "sheeple" wake up and realize that the government is controlling them, without an authority figure (i.e. the government) the sheeple would go wild and pandemonium would ensue.

It seems to be wild speculation, and unless there is something to back it up, I think it should remain removed from the explanation. Suspender guy (talk) 13:06, 14 October 2015 (UTC)

There may be a connection to Tom Smith's song, "Sheep Marketing Ploy." The song describes a series of imaginary horror movies about "Fenton, the Death Sheep from Hell," who has a deep and ominous "Baaa." Gmcgath (talk) 20:40, 22 October 2016 (UTC)

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